Jan. 10, 2006
Dean Acosta/Doc Mirelson
Headquarters, Washington
(202) 358-1400/1600
MEDIA ADVISORY: M06-001
NASA HONORS LEGENDARY ASTRONAUT VANCE BRAND
NASA will honor former astronaut Vance Brand for his involvement in
the Apollo space program with the presentation of the Ambassador of
Exploration Award at 9 p.m. EST (7 p.m. MST), Friday, Jan. 20 in the
City Council Chambers, Longmont Civic Center, 350 Kimbark St.,
Longmont, Colo.
NASA is presenting the Ambassador of Exploration Award to the 38
astronauts who participated in the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space
programs for realizing America’s vision of space exploration from
1961 to 1972.
The award is a small sample of lunar material encased in Lucite and
mounted for public display. The material is part of the 842 pounds of
samples brought back to Earth during the six Apollo lunar expeditions
from 1969 to 1972. Brand’s award will be displayed at the Longmont
Museum & Cultural Center.
Brand will be the museum’s guest starting at 1 p.m. EST (11 a.m. MST)
on Saturday, Jan. 21, during an open house, where the new display
will be unveiled, and he will talk about his experiences in the space
program. All events are free and open to the media and public.
In 1975, the Longmont-native made history as command module pilot with
the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. This joint American and Russian
mission was the first international manned space flight. It was an
important part of improving American-Russian relations. Brand was
also mission commander for three space shuttle flights from 1982 to
1990. He commanded flights on both the shuttles Columbia and
Challenger.
For Longmont Museum & Cultural Center information and media access,
contact Erik Mason at: (303) 651-8374; (e-mail:
erik.mason@ci.longmont.co.us).
For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/home
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